Estimation of age-dependent internal dose from radiopharmaceuticals

The age-dependence of the radiation dose absorbed in a target organ or the total body is determined by the mass, size, shape and separation of the organs as well as by the metabolic behaviour of the radionuclide compound. Using values of the specific absorbed dose for adults, the age-dependent effective dose equivalents for 28 radiopharmaceuticals (62 radionuclides) were calculated by modifying the above mentioned values, considering radiation type, organ mass and source-target separation. From the results, the currently used mathematical models for the modification of values of specific absorbed doses in the adult prove to be of sufficient accuracy. In comparison with the few available values calculated by Monte Carlo-techniques, our method overestimates the specific absorbed fractions by a factor of four in the least favourable case. For practical radionuclide dose estimates, these deviations are of minor importance as long as the availability of reliable information on the metabolic behaviour of radionuclide compounds and radiopharmaceuticals as a function of age is extremely limited. Considering, however, both the parenteral administration and the short half-life of radionuclides used in paediatric nuclear medicine, this uncertainty in regard to the gastrointestinal absorption and the biological half-lives is of little consequence for the results of absorbed dose calculations.